When Good Gets Better

Any one who buys meat from me knows that I love my USDA butcher, Mr. Horst. Not only does he and his employees do a phenomenal job cutting and packaging my livestock, but they have always treated the animals humanely and respectfully in their final moments. To me, that is extremely important. So, when I took a load of calves & goats down on Wednesday, I went to back up to the loading dock as usual. But in my rear-view mirror I saw the dock hand waving his arms as if I were about to hit something. When I got out to see what was up, he pointed out that they had entirely renovated their loading area. What an absolute pleasure it was to back up to the ramp that had consecutive closing gates so the animals could move backwards into the trailer. There was also a new and better configured scale to easily weigh the animals as they moved into the holding pens (all covered). And right as the animals entered, there was an automatic waterer so any stock thirsty from their haul could get a drink of water. It makes my day when a good thing gets better.

Where there's a will, there's a way

When I started selling live goats to the ethnic community for their religious and cultural holidays, I was surprised the first time a Bosnian man zip-tied the legs together on the same side and put the goat into the back of his Subaru. But when I came across this image, it was just too good not to share. If that's a young buck, I wouldn't want to keep that shirt, though.

Fourth of July Dinner

With all the promotion to "eat local" on Independence Day this year and the impetus to declare "food independence", I thought I'd post up what we had for dinner. Since it was a long day of getting Jess to the airport for her trip to Europe and I had to be up at 3am the following day for farmers market, there were no big plans for attending a social gathering and staying up late partying with friends. But July 4th wouldn't be right without putting something on the grill. While getting some market supplies out of the locker in Carlisle last week, I came across a package of bone-in, mega-thick rib steaks from the yak. Oh, what a find! They went on the grill along with some fresh summer squash out of Clint's garden and a few ears of corn a fellow Bloomindale Farmers Market vendor gave me. I slathered it all in Emma's raw milk cultured butter and set it to flame. DELICIOUS!